Flight of the Conchords: "Sally Returns" Review

When Jemaine runs into Sally again, he decides it's time to get his own place.

This episode gets started with a new title sequence, marking some subtle shifts in the overall feel of the show. While this is probably the least successful episode of Flight of the Conchords so far, the show still offers up its share of big laughs. Rachel Blanchard is funny (and easy on the eyes) in her reprisal of Sally, which leads to a moment in Bret and Jemaine's relationship that finds them at their most antagonistic.

The first song, "It's Business Time," is actually a fairly brilliant number about the lack of passion and song-worthy romance found in the mundane day-to-day of domestic life. The video does its best to dress down Blanchard, putting her in sweats and "That team building shirt you got at that place you used to work." Jemaine, with an assist by Bret, does his best to be sexy while Blanchard goes through her routines - which gives us the great line of: "Then you sort the recycling, which is not part of the foreplay but is still very important." And then it ends with the brilliant line of "Two minutes in heaven is better than one minute in heaven." This is classic Conchords (is there such a thing yet? Or is it too soon&#Array;They're definitely getting close).

The show drags a little bit between songs, which is quite out of character. The guys trying to outdo one another in making birthday gifts for Sally just doesn't work quite as well as it should have. The supporting characters rise to the occasion however, with Murray buying the boys stars as a "property investment," while Mel shows up at Jemaine's new place while "walking her dog" - though she clearly has no dog. However, the best line in this episode goes to Dave - who sees the elaborate card Jemaine made for Sally and says: "That reminds me of when I saw a puppy being born. I mean, when I saw that little head get pushed through that dog's p***y&#Array;just beautiful."

- HBO.comDave helps the guys work on a song.The final song, "Sally I Love You," doesn't quite work - at least, not as a song. Here the guys are dueling over the parts of the duet, and stepping on one another's lyrics. It works as a scene in this way, but it's not exactly a funny song because it never comes together as an actual number. It is the only time in the series that the song has provided fewer laughs than the regular narrative of the show.

When the guys realize that Sally is getting engaged, it's particularly funny that her fiance is an Australian. Adding insult to injury he picks Bret up calling him "Bretty!" making everything just seem terrible. The walk home from Sally's engagement/birthday party is amusing as Jemaine recounts everything Coco said to break-up with Bret. Of course he adds a few touches such as calling him "bastard" and throwing in a slap at the end, even though he was "supposed to start with that." All in all this isn't one of their better episodes, but still has some great laughs and is well worth watching.